Puppies sleeping through the night?

Last night was a particularly rough night for Spike and myself with him pretty much waking up every hour and whining to go outside to either go to the bathroom or play. He's been home a week now (he's 8 weeks old at this point) and the best night we've had was only having to get up twice (one of his first nights home). How old is average until they are able to sleep through the night? I've got him on somewhat of a schedule but I don't feel comfortable limiting his water intake to certain hours. Thanks in advance.

I would be really careful getting up that much to take spike out. He will continue to whine as long as he knows you will come to play. when you do have to let him out make sure you take him to do his business without any eye contact or words and place him back to bed as soon as he has been let out for a minute and go back to bed. Do not surrender to the calls for midnight play or it will become a habit! and remember no eye contact and do not speak to him that way he will not be inclined to start rough housing at 2am

Typically I have been able to tell the difference in the whining whether it's a bathroom break (nonstop whining) he needs or if it's just playtime -which I ignore and he usually stops whining pretty soon after. The only words I have been saying to him when I take him outside are typically "Go potty, Spike" and then I carry him back to the house and put him in his area and the whining stops and he returns to sleep, but it's a lot of times during the night when this is happening. At 9 weeks do you think it will be easier for him to sleep through the night? I am bothered by the fact that he was so young when he came to me but I don't know if that is affecting his development or not.

I would definitely restrict his water intake at least 2 hours before bedtime. A puppy simply cannot hold it all night if he is allowed to drink freely, most not until 16 weeks or more, they haven't developed the muscles to do that yet. It's kind of like asking an 8 month old baby not to pee all night. It won't hurt him to resrict his water at night, as long as he has free access to it all day. Some even give water at certain times of the day instead of leaving it out all day, there is a certain amount of water per pound needed though I can't remember what the amount is.
He will still probably whine the first couple of nights when water is restricted because it is habit for him now, but if you ignore (unless he really needs out) him he will adjust. 8 week is still young though, and it's great that you are being so consistent with him, it sounds like he has alreayd developed clean habits which is crucial to potty training.

Quote:

I would definitely restrict his water intake at least 2 hours before bedtime. A puppy simply cannot hold it all night if he is allowed to drink freely, most not until 16 weeks or more, they haven't developed the muscles to do that yet.

I'm going to try that with his water and food and see if it makes a difference. I have been fortunate to not have to go to work the first week he's been with me but starting on Tuesday I start a new job with 8am-5pm hours which will open up a whole new can of worms I suspect.

That's great that you were able to stay home, the first bonding days I'm sure he will adjust to the new routine

First- I have to say the pic of Spike is so cute!

Second- you mention that 8 weeks- too early for you to get him. I thought 8-10 weeks was normal for puppies to be able to go to their new homes from breeders. Is this true or is it closer to 12 weeks?

Thanks!

8 weeks or more is the normal age to pick up the pup. Rollrxgirl had mentioned she has had Spike for a week, so picked him up at 7 weeks.
I don't really think 7 weeks is early enough to be very detrimental to his emotional development, however, it is very important to socialize him a LOT starting now. They learn the most between 5-12 weeks, what they learn during this time is the most likely to leave a lifetime impact. Any socializing should be planned with dogs who are known to be excellent with other dogs, so that no frightening experiences happen that may lead to the puppy being afraid of other dogs, or dog aggressive. Same goes with people, make sure the pup is introduced to other people, dogs, places and activities in a way that will leave a positive impression for life.

I've been careful not to expose him to other dogs since he is only on his 2nd round of vaccinations but he and my cat get along wonderfully and he's met TONS of friends of mine who all adore him and shower him with attention so he's had lots of very positive social interactions so far. The only thing that bothers me is that there's a mean pit bull on the other side of the fence to my yard who barks at Spike and scares him quite a bit but I praise him and always tell him he's a good boy and he stays close to me when he hears the pit. That pit bull drives me up a wall and I've told the owners that he's scaring my puppy so at least they put up a board against the chain link fence so he now can't see us but that dog barks like a madman regardless.

Oh, by the way, I took up Spike's water and food at 8pm tonight to try to see if it helps with the number of times I'm getting up to let him out during the night. Boy oh boy was he distraught when he was playing and couldn't find any water anywhere! I felt so bad for him and just tried to tell him we "ran out" of water (like the explanation should help him understand? lol) He got very depressed and fell asleep for the night by 9pm (typically 10 is when he knocks out). I'll give an update on how tonight goes tomorrow!

Just an update -

Taking away the food and water certainly helped him sleep through the night last night. I just wish there was a way to have the same effect without denying him such an important substance which he obviously was in need of. He was absolutely *miserable* before he finally fell asleep for the entire night just trying to find water anywhere he could. I felt like such a bad mommy!!

If you keep him well hydrated during the day/evening,
taking up the water should not be a problem.

We let our pup use a sock filled with ice, about
20 minutes before bedtime. We found he would have a
restless night due to teething if we didn't.
He initially needed to get up once/night, but fairly quickly
switched to sleeping through.

zahra wrote:

If you keep him well hydrated during the day/evening,taking up the water should not be a problem.

We let our pup use a sock filled with ice, about20 minutes before bedtime. We found he would have arestless night due to teething if we didn't.He initially needed to get up once/night, but fairly quicklyswitched to sleeping through.

I think I keep him well hydrated during the day but it's hard to know since he drinks when he wants to drink and expects water to be there, lol! We play a LOT during the day and at night and I think he got really confused after playing a round of tug o' war by not having something to drink at that point.

That's a good idea about the sock filled with ice, I think I'll try it tonight and see if it goes any better.

Try the ice and see if it makes a little difference.

I forgot to mention, keep the treats to a small quantity in the evening.
Our sheepie would always get really thirsty after (and still does!)

Good luck !

zahra wrote:

Try the ice and see if it makes a little difference.

I forgot to mention, keep the treats to a small quantity.Our sheepie would always get really thirsty after (and still does!)

Good luck !

He hasn't been too into the treats I bought him so I've kinda decided that if he's responding well to praise then I'm gonna hold off on giving him treats until I do more to actually train him (i.e. sit, stay, etc.) I've been very lucky, none of my pets have really been too into the "food as a reward" system. In fact, my cat won't touch anything other than his food.

Off topic, but my first OES, Sid, started asking to go out in the middle of the night when she was about 5. Somehow, she discovered that the best time to chase frogs was at 2 in the morning.

Hilarious to watch her. She would gently put her paw on top of the frog, then give it a nudge and hop along after it.

Needless to say, I put a stop to that after about the second night-time request.

Glad to hear your evening went better. He may not like it at first, but he'll be fine. As he gets older you can leave the water down a little later, but I still take my dogs water away by ten pm.
The ice in a sock is a good idea, but sometimes they will eat the sock. Sky has pooped out the socks she has eaten, but I "try" to make sure she doesn't have access to them because I worry one of these times it's not going to come out.

So sorry, I failed to say to use the ice (in sock) with supervision...
Thanks, Willowsprite !

I brought home my puppy last night, and whenever he is in his kennel he whines steadily the entire time almost. He just went to the bathroom, so I know it can't be that. I don't know what to do to make him go in the kennel and be okay with it. Any tips?

I'm trying to ignore the whining, but it is SO hard.

RollerXgirl, Allie was still wanting to get up at 12 weeks, around 2:00am....and at 5:00am....
With some great advice from this forum, I ignored the 2:00am., said "Allie, Night Night", took about 2 nights and she quit crying at that time.....
I think she was getting in the habit of waking up, going out at that time for at least 4 weeks! As of now, she usually goes out to pee at about 9:00pm, falls asleep shortly after, sleeps till 6:30am.....
With the hot weather we have had, I do not cut her water out anymore, but on an average night, let her have a few laps after playing or a walk......
So maybe try that, 2 big laps after playing......

Hello,

My Old English is now 10 months when we first got him home he whined and whined, i limited it to getting up three times a night,

I found a great thing for him was a hot water bottle in a fluffy casing made him feel more comforatable, the idea was to make it seem like one of his brothers or sisters was cuddling up to him, so he didint feel so lonely. Also when he whined i stayed in bed but gently called down to him "its ok, mummy's here" until he settled(just so he knows someones their).

For the potty training i made sure he went loo before i went to bed and then left just a couple pieces of paper down for emergencies.

Hope this is helpful!

I hope your night went well!

Ahhhhh sleepless puppy days...I think I miss it!

We were very lucky with The Gooch...he just wandered around a lot...no crying though...I still think that's because he is deaf?! Can't hear so he has to LOOK around. He doesn't wander much anymore...the jingling of his collar at 2AM did make me crazy!

I may have gone about this all wrong......you see, my Boston Terrier sleeps in our bed everynight, however, even being 1 year old, he still gets up every 3-4 hours. At least one of the times it's to go to the bathroom...that's fine. The rest, he's ready to play. We've been playing with him alot before bed time, and that seems to help, but he insists on still getting up. It doesn't help any that we have another dog that sleeps in the bed, and everything the other dog moves, the Boston Terrier thinks it's playtime. This can make for quite a few bad nights. I've tried putting him in a crate, both in our bedroom and in our living room, and the crying just won't subside, I mean it goes on for hours !! He certainly has some strong vocal chords. I live in a townhouse, so I can't let him cry for that long or I'll receive some complaints. Whenever he needs to stay with family or friends, the same problem occurs, he ends up crying for an extended period of time. I feel bad for our family/friends and am going to have to put him into a kennel if this keeps up ( which I REALLY don't want to do).

Any advice ????????

derby is about 4 months old and he is finally sleeping throught the nite 11-6 but he is fully housebroken..

Needs2sleep, maybe try a crate right beside your bed? That way you can reach down to reassure, but still the dog is crated to assist you with reducing these frequent trips out.
At a year old there is no reason he can't hold it all night. He has learned he doesn't have to though which may take some time to change.

Our new puppy, Lilly is 13 weeks old. She sleeps in her crate and is crated during the day. We have a puppy sitter that comes and feeds, walks and play with her in the middle of the day so she isn't alone all day. Problem we are having is she is awake until about 2:30 in the morning! She whines in the crate even though we are in the same room as she is. I take her out and she just plops down on the patio. No real need to go potty! I have to physically pick her up and put her back in her crate. This goes on every hour or 2 until about 2:30 when she finally goes to sleep. HELP!!! Most of the time she is fine, no need to potty.
Would it be better to put her crate in another room or should we just ignore her? I know she goes almost 4 hours at a stretch during the day without wetting in her crate, but nighttime is getting the best of us. What should we do? Any advice would be helpful. She is our third OES and we love her dearly, we just need some sleep!!!

LillyMae wrote:

Our new puppy, Lilly is 13 weeks old. She sleeps in her crate and is crated during the day. We have a puppy sitter that comes and feeds, walks and play with her in the middle of the day so she isn't alone all day. Problem we are having is she is awake until about 2:30 in the morning! She whines in the crate even though we are in the same room as she is. I take her out and she just plops down on the patio. No real need to go potty! I have to physically pick her up and put her back in her crate. This goes on every hour or 2 until about 2:30 when she finally goes to sleep. HELP!!! Most of the time she is fine, no need to potty. Would it be better to put her crate in another room or should we just ignore her? I know she goes almost 4 hours at a stretch during the day without wetting in her crate, but nighttime is getting the best of us. What should we do? Any advice would be helpful. She is our third OES and we love her dearly, we just need some sleep!!!

When else does she have time to play and discover the world, she is crated all day ?!?
It's ok to put a puppy in a crate during the night. But when I read your message it seems to me that she is more in her crate then outside.
When you do not have time for a puppy why did you take one? In my opinion this is no life for a vivid puppy.

Hi. I too have a puppy getting up through the night. She's now just over 5 months old. We do not feed her after 8 pm and nothing to drink after 9. We typically go to bed around 10 or 10:30. SHe will litterally scratch me a whine to be let out every few hours waking us both. She does her business and comes straight back in to bed and right to sleep. I don't understand why she is still even waking through the night. But we are both exhausted!

When Chowder first came home a lot of her crying was loneliness. She slept in a crate in our bedroom. A lot of times I would just reach over, put my hand in the crate and touch her. She would often calm down and fall asleep and I'd fall back to sleep and my hand would fall out of the crate and we would start all over again. If she didn't go back to sleep, we took her out. I will say we put a machine washable cheap bed in the crate and would wash it and her the mornings if need be. She learned very quickly!

I feel for you alot. I went through this Oliver a year ago. It will get easier I promise. I had to go out with Oliver 2-3 times a night for the first 2-2 1/2 months. I also would let you know that when It is time for night night time, I put a blanket over his kennel. This is just a extra to let him know that it is Night time. They like it because they are naturally den animals and this makes them feel safe. . Enjoy these times because I really miss them and I am sure you will too. They grow so fast!!!! Traci [quote][/quote]And Oliver,Branson and Lilli

I just read the post of the person who has a new puppy and they whine alot. You should put some stuffties in the kennel with it. The puppy is just lonely because he is used to his litter mates and mom. You might put some soothing music on when he is in there. You could put a heating pad in there before you put the puppy in the kennel, this way it will simulate the mother or littler mates too. Put a chewy and some stuffties. What I did is got a stuffed animal and I slept with it and rubbed it all over me to get my scent on it so he thought of me as his mommy. This does help but they just have to get used to being alone. Traci